This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure that are described below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Advanced settop boxes, such as those used for receiving terrestrial, cable or satellite signals, often include one or more of a variety of additional networking capabilities. Digital Home Networking (DUN) services are often included as a feature that allows multiple settop boxes, usually located in a single customer premise, to communicate with each other. One popular DHN protocol has been created by the Multimedia over Cable Alliance (MoCA) and involves transmitted content and control information between settop boxes using the same cabling system used to deliver the primary broadcast (i.e. cable or satellite broadcast) service. Including MoCA with the delivery of satellite based services generally requires that the frequency spectrum used for the home networking system be outside the spectrum used for the various satellite delivery systems.
However, constraints related to external operational interference or the cost and practicality of design may not permit use of spectrum outside the broadcast and distribution spectrum for the satellite signals at all times. In one particular instance, a home networking system is currently being implemented for use with satellites signals that will operate in the range of 500 Megahertz (MHz) to 600 MHz. However, the settop boxes are designed to receive satellite signals in the frequency range of 250 MHz to 2150 MHz. In order to permit use of the home networking system, a series of switches and filters may be included to separately process the home networking signal from the satellite broadcast signal. The additional circuitry adds significant cost and complexity to the system and, more importantly, unnecessarily impacts the performance of the broadcast reception of the settop box. The performance impact is primarily due to the inclusion of switches and other circuits that increase signal distortion and signal insertion loss to the broadcast signal. A system and method that addresses the problems associated with home networking communications in conjunction with broadcast communications in a settop box is desired.